Maseches Ma'asros, chapter 4, mishnah 6. In the previous mishnah we established the basic principle: the main fruit - the intended, primary product of the plant - is what is subject to the requirements of ma'asros. For example, if someone plants a coriander plant and raises it, the coriander seeds are the primary product sought under ordinary circumstances, and only they are obligated in ma'asros, while the leaves (called cilantro) are exempt - unless the plant was deliberately planted for the leaves as well, in which case they too are obligated in ma'aser. And an important point: even if the plant was planted for the sake of the leaves, that does not exempt the seeds from the obligations of ma'aser, since the usual reason people grow coriander plants is for the seeds. The seeds are therefore the standard, objective product of the plant - standard and objective relative to that time and that place. Nowadays it may be different, depending on what is accepted in that society and in that place regarding the purposes for which each and every plant is grown.
Our mishnah continues with that very same idea, with regard to other types of plants.
The temaros of fenugreek, mustard and white beans:
The mishnah opens: "Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel omer: temaros shel tiltan, v'shel chardal, v'shel pol halavan" - Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: the temaros of fenugreek, of mustard, and of the white bean. The temaros are a part of the plant, and three species are being discussed:
Tiltan - this is fenugreek, known among Yemenite Jews as 'chilbah', a seed used to season food.
Chardal - mustard, whose seed is its usual and intended product.
Pol halavan - a type of white bean. Some have translated this as the hyacinth bean, but its precise identification is not clear.
In all three of these plants the seed or the bean is the primary product, and nevertheless the temaros are also obligated in ma'asros. In the opinion of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, people are accustomed to eat the temaros of these plants as well, and therefore someone who eats them in the manner of a fixed meal must tithe them first.
What are the temaros?
The Bartenura brings two explanations:
Lulavim - shoots, like the tender shoots of a grapevine, the small fresh sprouts that grow out of it. According to this explanation, we are speaking of the fresh sprouts that grow from the fenugreek plant, the mustard, and the white bean.
The beginning of the pod - the place inside which the seed or the bean will eventually grow. For example, in a pea plant, when the pea pod begins to grow, before any peas have formed inside it, there is a small thing that grows - the pod in its earliest stage - and that is the temarah. It is fit to be eaten even before the peas have grown inside it. So too with the white bean, with fenugreek and the like: a small pod that grows at the outset, before the seeds inside it have formed.
These are the temaros, and they are subject to the requirements of ma'aser in the opinion of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel.
The caper bush and its products:
The mishnah continues: "Rabbi Eliezer omer: hatzalaf mis'aser temaros v'evyonos v'kafrisin" - Rabbi Eliezer says: the caper bush is tithed for its temaros, its evyonos and its kafrisin. The tzalaf is the caper bush, and many people are familiar with it - these are the green plants that grow out of the stones of the Kosel. Caper bushes produce two separate types of edible foods: the kafrisin and the evyonos. Today, in the Western world people do not eat the fruit of the caper bush, but capers themselves are certainly eaten.
The caper is the bud that appears before the flower blossoms on the caper bush - a small, green, closed flower bud, commonly eaten on smoked salmon and the like. As with all plants, the plant grows a bud that becomes a flower, the flower is pollinated, its petals fall off, and out of the heart of the flower, from the ovaries, a fruit body emerges. Inside the fruit body are seeds that get scattered one way or another, and from them a new plant grows, new flowers, a new fruit body, and so on.
The caper, then, is what is picked from the caper bush before it has turned into a flower, and it is a very common food. If, however, one leaves it to grow, it turns into a flower, and out of the flower grows a small thing that looks almost like a tiny cucumber, roughly the size of a date. This can be confusing, since the word 'tamar' might be understood as the date fruit, but that is not the intention at all - and so too at the beginning of the Mishnah, the "temarot" of fenugreek, mustard and white beans have nothing to do with the date fruit. The small green fruit body that emerges from the caper bush is called an evyonah, and it is edible and full of seeds; some eat it pickled, and some slice and fry it. It turns out that two separate fruits grow on caper plants: the caper itself and the evyonot.
According to Rabbi Eliezer there are three components in the caper bush, all of them ordinary edible foods, and all of them equally obligated in ma'aser:
"Temarot" - according to the Bartenura in his first explanation, these are its shoots, the small growing sprigs, that is, a type of edible sprig - the stalk on which the caper grows. In his other explanation: the flower, meaning the capers themselves.
"Evyonot" - a kind of berry, and these are apparently the main food, that is, the caper berry, roughly the size of a date and looking somewhat like a cucumber.
"Kafrisin" - the Bartenura understands, based on the discussion in the Gemara, that this refers to the husk, the protective covering of the fruit, the peel that surrounds the fruit and protects it. Its precise identification is not entirely clear.
Rabbi Akiva disagrees: "ein mit'aser ela evyonot, mipnei shehem peri" - only the evyonot, that is, the caper fruits, are subject to the obligations of ma'aser. The capers themselves and the husks surrounding the caper fruits are not generally considered food, and therefore are not obligated in ma'aser - unless one grows the plant specifically for the sake of the capers, in which case, as we saw in the previous Mishnah, those parts of the plant are obligated in ma'aser as well. The halachah follows Rabbi Akiva.
In summary: in this Mishnah we continued applying the principle of the primary fruit to the secondary parts of the plant. According to Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, the temarot of fenugreek, mustard and white beans are obligated in ma'aser, even though the seed is the main product, because people commonly eat them. Regarding the caper bush there is a dispute: Rabbi Eliezer obligates all three products in ma'aser - temarot, evyonot and kafrisin; while Rabbi Akiva obligates only the evyonot, because they are the fruit, and that is how the halachah was decided.
And with this we complete the fourth chapter.